Monday, November 05, 2012

Tomorrow, the nation will be heading out to vote to decide who will lead us for the next four years. We will decide senate and house seats. We will be choosing our local government but there is one thing on the ballot in the state of Arkansas that needs to be passed. Issue 5 on the ballot is for the legalization of Marijuana for Medical uses. I normally do not put any sort of agenda on the site or discuss political issues but this one is very important to me. I have been battling a condition for the last two years. I have mentioned it on here before but it needs to be told in this situation. I have a knot on my brain stem that causes me to black out and have seizures. I live constantly with the pain of pressure and headaches. I can have surgery to remove the knot but the the surgery is very risky and could leave me paralyzed from the neck down due to the location of the knot. I get prescribed hydrocodones for the pain but all that they do is put me to sleep and I still wake up with the pain. One of the few things I have found that takes away the pain is the use of Marijuana. I am not alone in this however. If you head on over to http://arcompassion.com/ you can hear stories of people that battle cancer and the smoking of marijuana was able to take away the pain.

Now, I want to talk about the reasons that I have heard as to why people will not vote yes. One of the excuses that has been said is, the people that will be coming out of the woodwork just to get weed by making up illnesses. If Issue 5 is passed, your doctor will decide if you are eligible or not. In the state of Arkansas 79 doctors have stepped up in support of medical marijuana. It is going to be tough in my opinion for someone just to come off the street and be able to take advantage of this. The doctors will have to do their best to decide. This problem will be in the hands of the professionals.

The next problem I have heard from people is the fact that Marijuana is an illegal drug. Yes it is illegal but why? Cocaine is man made, Speed is man made, Heroine is man made, and meth is man made. Those should be illegal. However, Marijuana is natural. Is tobacco illegal? It is a natural cash crop that is grown and consumed by many Americans. We hear about all the dangers of cigarettes, but they are still legal in this country. Why are we not allowed to smoke marijuana legally? We allow something to be sold everyday that causes men and women to devolve lung cancer. Marijuana smoke acts like a cough drop due to the THC and opens you up making you able to breath easier. Why is it that we can not make Marijuana legal as a whole.

The third and final complaint that I have heard is that there will be vending machine on every street corner making the purchase of marijuana easier for everyone. That is one of the largest lies maybe of this political season in the state of Arkansas. It will not be that easy to get. You will have to be approved and have a medical condition to get your card. We need to wake up and look at the difference.

Here is the actual wording of what will be on the ballot.An act making the medical use of marijuana legal under Arkansas State
Law, and establishing a system for the cultivation, acquisition and
distribution of marijuana for qualifying patients through nonprofit
medical marijuana dispensaries and granting those nonprofit dispensaries
limited immunity; allowing localities to limit the number of nonprofit
dispensaries and to enact reasonable zoning regulations governing their
operations; providing that qualifying patients, their designated
caregivers and nonprofit dispensary agents shall not be subject to
criminal or civil penalties or other forms of discrimination for
engaging in or assisting with the patients' medical use of marijuana;
authorizing limited cultivation of marijuana by qualifying patients of
designated caregivers if a qualifying patient lives more than five miles
from the nearest nonprofit dispensary; authorizing compensation for
designated caregivers; requiring that in order to become a qualifying
patient, a person submit to the state a written certification from a
physician that they are suffering from a qualifying medical condition;
establishing an initial list of qualifying medical conditions including
cancer, glaucoma, positive status for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis c, amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis, Tourette's disease, Crohn's disease, ulcerative
colitis, post traumatic stress disorder, fibromyalgia, agitation of
Alzheimer's disease or the treatment of these conditions, a chronic or
debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that produces
one or more of the following: Cachexia or wasting syndrome, peripheral
neuropathy, intractable pain, severe nausea, seizures, including those
characteristic of epilepsy or severa and persistent muscle spasms,
including those associated with multiple sclerosis; directing the
Department of Health to establish rules related to the processing of
applications for registry identification cards, the operations of
nonprofit dispensaries, and the addition of qualifying medical
conditions if such additions will enable patients to derive therapeutic
benefit from the medical use of marijuana; setting maximum registration
fees for nonprofit dispensaries; establishing qualifications for
registry identification cards; establishing standards to ensure that
qualifying patient and designated caregiver registration information is
treated as confidential; directing the Department of Health to provide
the Legislature annual quantitative reports about the Medical Marijuana
Program; setting certain limitations on the use of medical marijuana by
qualifying patients; establishing an affirmative defense for the medical
use of marijuana; establishing registration and operation requirements
for nonprofit dispensaries; setting limits on the amount of marijuana a
nonprofit dispensary may cultivate and the amount of marijuana a
nonprofit dispensary may dispense to a qualifying patient; prohibiting
certain conduct by, and imposing certain conditions and requirements on
physicians, nonprofit dispensaries, nonprofit dispensary agents,
qualifying patients, and designated caregivers; establishing a list of
felony offenses which preclude certain types of participation in the
medical marijuana program; allowing visiting qualifying patients
suffering from qualifying medical conditions to utilize the Arkansas
Medical Marijuana Program; acknowledging that marijuana use, possession,
and distribution for any purpose remain illegal under federal law.

If you live in a state other than Arkansas where this is on the ballot. Vote for the legalization of medical marijuana. If you live in Arkansas VOTE YES ON 5!!!